Reviewed by Taylin
TITLE: Blood Red Roulette 
AUTHOR: Jana Denardo
PUBLISHER: DSP Publications
LENGTH: 350 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 13, 2018
BLURB:
Arrigo Giancarlo’s friends think he’s a rich young man with the unusual job of paranormal investigator, working with his psychic assistant in Las Vegas. In truth he’s a two-thousand-year-old vampire and member of the Chiaroscuro, a group of Supernaturals dedicated to keeping humanity safe from the more dangerous of their kind. He’s also openly bisexual… but alone.
When he spots Luc St. John in a bar, Arrigo is intrigued. What begins as an effort to repay the kindness shown to him in the past quickly turns into much deeper feelings for the suffering and displaced Cajun. For Luc’s part, he feels too poor, too uneducated, and too bound to his hateful family to ever be worthy of elegant and cultured Arrigo.
An old enemy, Eleni, blames Arrigo for murdering her true love. On the anniversary of that death, she’s back to take revenge. As Arrigo’s closest friends fall victim to savage attacks, he fears nothing will keep Luc safe. Should he break both their hearts and let Luc go, or is it too late? If Luc’s already in Eleni’s sights, Arrigo knows that like most things in Vegas, the odds are against him.
REVIEW:
Arrigo is writing a book on paranormal activity. He should know more about it than most, given that he’s a vampire – a young looking yet ancient vampire. He is also a member of a sect who keep renegade supernatural’s under control, by killing them. Eleni is seriously pissed off at Arrigo for killing her wayward lover and the five hundredth anniversary of the event is here, so she has something special planned for Arrigo. Namely, damaging anyone he holds dear – inflicting the most injury she can to all concerned.
Luc is the youngest of a Cajun family who relocated to Las Vegas. Initially, Arrigo is interested in him for a small meal. Then seeing how the man is bullied and belittled by his brother and father, hunger turns to protection and onto something more.
Before I elaborate, I will say that this book had areas that I really liked. However, some elements hindered my reading enjoyment – hence the low mark.
Told in the third person from several pov’s, the technical side of this long novel is good. It also has a nice conversational tone. Given Luc’s roots, there is a glossary of Cajun-French to English terms is at the start of the novel, which some may find useful. Personally, I didn’t want to go back and forth between the terms and the story, and the gist of most of them could be garnered from the text. Also, some of the paragraphs were a bit long, resulting in me losing my place a few times, making the reading process harder than it should have been.
Every novel is an author’s baby. It was evident from the dedications, and many other traits, that Blood Red Roulette was a labor of love for its writer. However, in creating a complete world that to lose oneself in, the author has fallen into that age-old cavern of giving too much information. The details in the first half of the book border on information dumps about everyone’s background, using paragraphs where a sentence or two would do. Some of these elements were superfluous to the story arc, and their distracting length diluted the dramatic effect of the story. I couldn’t help thinking that these extra passages would have been better served as carrot dangling advertising excerpts. Thereby, keeping the world intact, but, compacting the final story, giving it a much more dramatic edge and allowing me to connect to the characters better.
Speaking of characters – they are all well written, albeit slightly oversold, and span a few traditional supernatural variations. Arrigo has some known vampire traits, while others are dismissed as hokum. The man, like Luc, is bi.
Luc is a sweet soul and for me, whenever he is on the page, steals the show. Due to constant emotional and physical battering from his family, the man has low self-esteem. A highlight of the story was seeing him develop in confidence and voice as his arc progressed. His innocence, self-analyzation and Catholic upbringing see him conflicted between his feelings and the teachings of his church. I liked that the rougher side of being gay was identified alongside the more romanticized aspect.
Arrigo, age wise, is ancient and has had many lovers. Therefore, he isn’t as quick to jump into love. His liaison with Luc starts as hunger then morphs into lust, onto protection, then more. Their desire is born of the situation and morphs. Until later in the story, their romance seems more like a passing fad or responsibility than one of the heart.
The cat and mouse game between Arrigo and Eleni was the main arc. The Luc/Arrigo affair was secondary facilitating drama and sexual exploration. Eleni is a twisted villain, who is not afraid to kill, but she prefers the chase and taunting to the final game. The more hurt she can cause her victims the better.
I enjoyed the investigative process of flushing out Eleni. I also enjoyed the bickering between the different paranormal beings and the way Arrigo and his friends played with the minds of nasty people who needed putting in their place.
There are some readers out there who adore detail. In which case, those people will grab this novel with both hands and eat up every page. Personally, I believe Blood Red Roulette has great potential, but I found the second half much more engaging than the first and could have quite happily read that part on its own.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: